Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

America Recovers: "Talk" Magazine Changes It's Tone to Reflect the Mood of New York City

Aired October 05, 2001 - 08:22   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The eerie reality of the place known as ground zero is being captured in millions of words and hundreds of pictures.

In the November issue of "Talk" magazine, editor Tina Brown describes her visit to the site of the New York attack.

She writes, "The reality of ground zero is utterly overwhelming -- the amphitheater of blown-out windows, the mud, the emblems of strength and power denuded of meaning."

Tina Brown is with us this morning -- welcome -- good to have you with us this morning.

TINA BROWN, "TALK": (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

ZAHN: That is obviously not what you had set out to write about in that November issue. You were focused on Fashion Week in New York, but then this happened.

BROWN: It couldn't have been -- it could not have been a more ironic change of tone in the sense that I had already filed my diary, we were closing the issue. The diary was all about the MTV Awards, about the Michael Jackson concert, about Fashion Week in New York.

ZAHN: And we all sit here today like who cares.

BROWN: And you think that was in another century. It felt like 100 years ago. And overnight, you know, within hours, the whole world seemed to have changed. And, of course, I sat down and wrote the new world in the diary. But I sometimes look back on what I wrote before, and I'm thinking it really does feel like a different century.

ZAHN: You made some very pointed observations about how much this city has changed. But for the folks who haven't had a chance to get an advance copy of the magazine and read your column, share with them a little bit about how you went about writing the diary, who you talked to. Because there are some interviews you did with people whose lives were so dramatically altered by these terrorist attacks.

BROWN: Well, for a start, of course, many of the staff were completely shattered, because they had to move out of their apartments. Many of them lived downtown. There were people who work with us, who knew -- for instance, one person who worked with us knew virtually everybody at Windows on the World -- had worked on their advertising campaign, and was absolutely shattered by the loss of that entire group of people.

I went downtown and talked to people at the crisis center, and I ran into a telephone engineer that I know from Long Island, and he was searching for his son. And...

ZAHN: Did he ever find him?

BROWN: He did not. And I don't think -- thought he would. But it was something so tragic about seeing the little clusters of people who were trying to give each other hope. He was standing with four or five other people who were telling each other, have you checked so and so hospital? Have you done this, have you done that? I hear they found somebody.

You know, they were giving each other sort of crumbs of hope as they stood there on this almost -- it was something awful about the fact the day was so beautiful. It was a wonderful sunny day, and there they were standing outside the New School which had been transformed into this crisis center, telling each other these little crumbs of hope. I found that really incredibly poignant and sad.

I also found -- I became very much closer as an English person to the American ideals. I felt -- I have lived here now for 16 or 17 years. I've always loved New York. It's the place I work and thrive. I have two children who are now Americans. But this experience really kind of bonded me with the city in ways that I didn't expect.

ZAHN: Yes, what surprised you? Because I think that New Yorkers have been given a bad rap for so many years, and we have seen such a triumph of spirit in this city.

BROWN: That's...

ZAHN: And the overwhelming support of firefighters and police officers.

BROWN: It was so moving to see that. It was so moving to see the gadflies of Fashion Week out giving blood. It was so moving to see the editorial assistants of "Talk" turning the kitchen into a pasta (ph) and sandwich factory. It was so wonderful to see the family (ph).

It was so very, very moving, and I think, you know, I just felt the courage of the city, and I also felt the ideals of the country that is so welcoming to immigrants. I mean, I, myself came from overseas and was welcomed. And it seemed like such a terrible betrayal of that welcoming instinct that Americans have that the city was assaulted in this way.

ZAHN: And you talk about the vulnerability that I think all New Yorkers feel and to some extent all Americans feel, particularly as the story in the "Washington Post" broke this morning warning that there will be more terrorist strikes or at least warning of this from intelligence officials if the U.S. and its allies strike Afghanistan.

BROWN: I think we do feel very vulnerable, and we're looking for ways to console our children, who feel vulnerable for the first time. We've never had to tell our children that, yes, maybe we could be attacked. We've always told them, it could never happen here.

ZAHN: And they can see our feelings. They see it in our faces. They see it in our restlessness.

BROWN: They see it.

ZAHN: You also talk a little bit about Mayor Giuliani in this issue. He, of course, is on the cover. And there has been so much controversy surrounding his future. His popularity ratings are at an all-time high. I think almost everybody agrees that Rudy the Rock, as the vice president declared him, has done an excellent job of trying to pull the city together. But you talk a little bit more about his future.

BROWN: Well, I think we've always regarded the mayor as a great mayor in terms of his brilliant, you know, powers of command, his way he can marshal and organize and be so effective. But I think we've all been surprised really at the depths of his emotional sort of commitment to the city in terms of the way he was able to help with the victims, and the way he has talked to people in a sensitive way. I think that was a kind of new Rudy that we haven't seen, and I think it's taken him to a new level.

I think it would be fantastic if he had another term, but I also think the feeling now probably is that, you know, we must observe the term limits. It's clearly an important thing to do. I hope that he is able to play a major role in the reconstruction of the city. I just hope he is given a role or can create a role where he does play a major part, because he loves this city, and he knows how to run it.

ZAHN: It will be interesting to see where he ends up.

Just in closing this morning, I can't imagine how this will affect your editorial judgment. It would seem to me much of what you wrote about that people found entertaining and found interesting might seem frivolous now.

How will the content of the magazine change to reflect what has happened here?

BROWN: Well, I think a good magazine has to respond and reflect the society and the culture that it's in. And obviously, our editorial content will reflect the changing mood. We don't have to entirely, you know, change the brief of the magazine. We will still report on culture. We will still report on pop culture. We will still report on stories -- you know, human interest stories. But I think all of these things...

ZAHN: Fashion seems kind of silly now, though, doesn't it?

BROWN: Fashion seems a little irrelevant, but of course, you know, I mean, people will still wear clothes, and how you talk about fashion is the point. It's really a different tone of how you talk about things. And I think we definitely have a role in that, and I think we have a lot of great social observers -- a lot of people who are very highly tuned to, you know, the culture and the sensitivity of the moment. And the material will reflect that in the magazine. We have many terrific pieces in the works, which do reflect the changing mood in America.

ZAHN: Well, Tina Brown -- good to see you -- appreciate your...

BROWN: Thank you.

ZAHN: ... spending a large chunk of your morning with us here this morning.

BROWN: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.